This was such a FUN book to read. It’s like mystery, comedy, and romance all packed in one story.

I actually had to Google this term, but the author breaks the fourth wall. I’ve never read a book like this and I absolutely LOVE that about this book. It makes it feel like the author is writing for me, specifically. It just adds something extra that you don’t see very often. Well, more like never, for me.

There were so many suspects in this murder mystery that I honestly had no idea “whodunit” until it was revealed at the very end. Guessing correctly too soon ruins a book for me, so I really appreciated that!

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the footnotes. I read them in the beginning once I figured out I could click on them on my kindle, but I stopped a couple chapters in. I love the plot reveal of the next book in the series. Overall, I definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the digital reviewer’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this debut by Catherine Mack! The title is brilliant, and that's what caught my attention first, along with the fun cover. Eleanor Dash is on a book tour in Italy, which should be amazing. But instead of enjoying the sights, she's preoccupied with how to kill off her main character, Connor Smith, who happens to be based on her real-life ex who's also on the tour. Things start to get interesting when Connor claims someone is trying to kill him in real life. There are plenty of suspects, with Eleanor at the top of the list.

This book was a light-hearted mystery with plenty of humor and lots of secrets to be revealed over time. There were also plenty of asides to the reader, in the form of footnotes, which were fun, but a little difficult to read on an e-reader.

Definitely looking forward to reading the next Eleanor Dash adventure!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review

3 stars
This was fun. It had humor, romance, mystery. It became repetitive at times, but I was able to push through. As for the footnotes, I’ve enjoyed them in other works, but if not used properly they can take away from the story. I can see where the author was going with them here, but I’m not sure they actually added much to the overall picture. It was more of a distraction.

Overall this was fun, and I suspect with a good once over by the author and editor this could be great!

So much fun! Mystery, murder, and romance in Southern Italy.

Eleanor is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her hit debut mystery novel with a 10-day tour across Italy. The only problem is she’s being blackmailed by the star of her novels, Connor. And Connor is claiming someone is trying to kill him. Oh, and her ex-boyfriend and love of her life is joining the book tour and seems to be totally uninterested in getting back together.

This was an entertaining and cheeky (mostly due to the footnotes) read. I’m looking forward to the sequel! 3.5 stars.

Thank you very much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I would probably give this a 3.5, just because I didn’t really get into the footnotes. I wasn’t sure where or how they fit into a novel for me. Also, I wasn’t as gripped as I normally am. It would have been more successful for me if the “gimmicks” were not there. But, I get that the author wanted to try something different.

Having just spent a month in Italy this year, I was transported back by Eleanor's adventures and I loved every single second of this zany, crazy book. I particularly enjoyed the conversational style between reader and author. I have never read anything quite like this and I quite enjoyed it!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review!

This book was unlike any book I’ve ever read before. It is a book without a 4th wall. The entire book is essentially a monologue to the reader from the narrator. The footnotes confused me at first, but I found them to be funny as the book went along. I like this book, quirky as it may be. It’s like a game of clue in book form.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a fun, irreverent take on mystery novels and the writers who compose them. The first in a series about true-crime/mystery writer Eleanor Dash, the book opens with a quotation from both Eleanor and Agatha Christie, priming mystery fans for the excitement to come. Eleanor has gained literary fame with her Vacation Mystery Series, but, since she based the series on her real-life adventures with a man named Connor Smith and neglected to change his name, he has been blackmailing her for a large percentage of her salary. Eleanor is ready to kill off the character that her readers love, but when a real-life attempt on Connor's life happens while they are traveling abroad, Eleanor will be drawn into a dangerous adventure.

This book will delight mystery fans looking for a fun read that will keep them guessing. Eleanor's voice is charming and confessional, and the ends of the chapters feature footnotes explaining key details of her narrative. The book is intriguing, funny, and hard to put down!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Thank-you to #netgalley and the publisher for the #AdvanceReviewCopy
Release Date: April 2024
Genre: Cozy Mystery

Eleanor Dash (our main character) is the author of a series of mystery books that hit it big and sold millions of copies-every author’s dream, right! The books (in the story) are based on actual events and people. But Eleanor pays blackmail fees to her ex, Conor, and main star of her books in order to keep writing about him-fans LOVE him. When her publishing company sends her, Conor, other authors, and a fan group of which one has a restraining order against Eleanor, to Italy on a book tour, things get extremely heated with so many murder attempts, lies, and not to mention a second ex boyfriend on the tour. This cocktail of a group presents the picture perfect assembly of many possible suspects with motives.

I really liked this book. The format was different than anything I’ve read before. The main character spoke directly to the reader often using the technique called ‘breaking the fourth wall’ and this made it all so much more cozy and provided an even more personalized reading experience. The main character was funny, witty, and even sometimes purposefully unreliable. I didn’t even come close to solving the mystery, but then again, things do tend to sometimes go over my head-being real here! My only issue was the author included several footnotes in every chapter. These footnotes were intended to provide insight into the narrator’s thoughts. In theory, this was a good idea. However, I found the footnotes pulled me out of the story and broke the flow. Some of the footnotes could have been skipped, and you wouldn’t have missed anything important, but I would have preferred them included in the story so that I didn’t have to stop reading to click on the note. This would have been easy to do because it was written in first person perspective. For reference, I read this on my Kindle but feel the physical copy would have the same impact concerning the footnotes.

Other than the footnotes, I truly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#cozymystery
#reviewer

This is a cute book about fiction-writer, Eleanor who goes to Italy on a book tour with her sister and Connor and Oliver--two ex-boyfriends. Lots of mis-haps and humorous situations that often make it seem like a comedy of errors, but it had some clever dialogue as well. Like others, I didn't enjoy the footnotes much as on a kindle, it's difficult to go back and forth to read them. I imagine in paper form this would be easier But overall, it's a warm story (even with a murder) and I would read more of Mack's books.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

This is a fun read with some really creative elements! Some things—like the use of footnotes—may seem a bit gimmicky (and slightly annoying, as they are not truly footnotes but chapter endnotes, at least in the ARC) but overall the surprising aspects of the book are amusing. I liked that the main characters were authors, or author/publishing-adjacent and they are a pretty interesting bunch, although I kept confusing a couple of them at the beginning. The Italian setting and wonderful descriptions of food and drinks will certainly entertain most readers, as will the snarky, quirky dialogue. There are great references to other mysteries and mystery writers and I loved trying to figure out who committed the various crimes that riddle this story. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This was a fun, “escape the doldrums read”! A ten day book tour in Italy with a cast of quirky personalities definitely guarantees an interesting murder, romance (well, it is Italy!) and of course, alcohol (again, it is Italy)!

This is a combo of scenery, wit, snark and cozy all wrapped up in one mystery read! The first of “The Vacation Mysteries” and I am definitely looking forward to reading more! Thank you Catherine Mack.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies . . . one trip to die for.

"Quick, captivating, and oh-so-much-fun! This delicious mystery is as spellbinding as Knives Out."—Elle Cosimano, New York Times bestselling author of the Finlay Donovan series

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I actually did, in the end. It started out very promising - I liked the quirky style and the footnotes made me smile, as did the whole breaking-the-fourth-wall element. There were allusions to Things to Come and bizarre secrets aplenty. Unfortunately, those contrivances got old much quicker than I expected and I started to find them irritating rather than entertaining about 40% in, and from that point on it just felt like I kept re-reading the same plot "surprises" and snarky bits. That's when it started to lose me...

I kept going, to see where it would all net out. I didn't see the identity of the villain(s) coming, which is a definite plus, but I also didn't miss much by skimming - or outright skipping - the footnotes or even whole chapters at that point, which is definitely not a plus... I liked the setup for the next book, and would probably give it a go but with an eye out for that same repetitive issue. Sometimes the first book, as the series setup, needs to be given a little leeway. While the characters weren't particularly compelling (frankly I found the protagonist and her sister irritatingly whiny and surprisingly simplistic, given their roles), the construct is fun and makes it worth another look in my book.

A new to me author & a fun new series from how book one was! Eleanor is an author, on a tour with her sister, two ex-boyfriends, and a group of authors, as well as fans, in Italy. There are murders (of course), who did it, speculations and funny tidbits in between. The story was an easy read, as well as enjoyable. When the murderer is revealed, it was a surprise, so not something that was figured ahead of time by me (the reader). I look forward to reading the next in the series. Thanks to NetGalley, and Ms Mack for the pre-read in exchange for an honest review.

I finished the book, but can't say that I enjoyed it. I didn't care for any of the characters. The narrator seemed too ditzy to be a successful author of 10 mystery novels.
The footnotes were annoying on an e-reader. I stopped reading them as the going back and forth was tedious, and, for the most part, pointless.
Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an Arc of this novel.
#EveryTimeIGoOnVacationSomeoneDies#CatherineMack#MinotaurBooks#NetGalley

What a romp! Lots of characters and things going on. I had no idea who the killer would end up being and it was a fun read getting it all figured out.

The footnotes confused me the first chapter or two and then I got used to them and enjoyed what they added to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hilarious! I enjoy a book with footnotes and I loved the snark in this one. Reading footnotes with a kindle was a challenge, but I made it work. I loved the story and it would make a great movie! Highly recommend as a great weekend read!

Another in the emerging 'Meta-Mystery' go-to genre, with a sweet, cozy aspect that compliments Mack's sparky, witty repartee.

El is a whirlwind bestselling mystery author... that hasn't come by it honestly. Embroiled in a blackmail plot and international crime, she finds herself on a book tour in Italy, contemplating losing her sister, ending her career, and possibly losing her life.

As she routinely breaks the fourth wall to talk to, and sometimes coach us, her readers, we find that sometimes the facts can be deceiving... and that second chances can be a double-edged sword.

Ultimately, it is a very satisfying read that does its best to make it CLEAR whodunit.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of this debut novel.

The first of a planned series featuring mystery writer, intrepid traveller, and unwitting sleuth Eleanor Dash, this book exemplifies the protagonist’s name. It is indeed a madcap dash through a series of episodes featuring a large principal cast of characters (mystery authors) and a fair-sized secondary cast.

The premise is that Eleanor Dash, author of nine mysteries set in nine vacation spots, is back where it all started with her first book, set in Rome. The Roman mystery involved a bank heist and a famous Mafia family, and its hero, Connor Smith, proved so popular that he became the series star. In fact, Smith is the real name of a real person, a wily, unscrupulous and utterly charming man who, in real life, was Eleanor’s lover. The supposed foiling of the Mafia plans actually happened, with his involvement as a ´police consultant.’ Eleanor was drawn into the affair, and was inspired to write a bestselling fictionalized version of what really went down.

Ten years later, the real relationship long since ended, with much bad feeling left behind, the fictional Connor Smith still stars in every one of her books because her fans can’t get enough of him and her publishing house won’t let her kill him off. And the real Connor has something on her that makes her great desire to be rid of him (in her books though occasionally in real life) a questionable move.

In Rome, on tour with a number of other mystery writers connected to Connor, who seems to have swindled each of them, it appears that someone really is trying to kill him. Everyone has a motive, including Eleanor, and even the adoring female fans who won a contest to go along. A murder or attempted murder takes place everywhere they go. It’s hard even to decide if Connor or Eleanor, or both, or one of the group are the targets. And whose side are the Roman police on?

Eleanor Dash is the classic unreliable narrator, underscoring the point by reminding readers that she is a practiced liar. She is also at once a possible murder target and a possible murderer—maybe even a serial killer. She is definitely a victim of Connor’s schemes. And she ostensibly tells this story while trying to solve the mystery and set right her past errors. She also speaks directly to the readers, calling on their participation, a device I liked rather less. But I can’t imagine any reader resisting.

The author has a fast-paced, often uproariously humorous, style. Her footnotes alone, really asides, are hilarious. The twists and turns are breathtaking. I’m very much looking forward to the next installation!